Two hours after you quit circulation to your fingers and toes improves. (Note: (Note: Nicotine withdrawal symptoms usually start about two hours after your last cigarette. Symptoms include cravings, anxiety, trouble sleeping and increased appetite. These usually ease after two weeks.)

Eight to 12 hours after your last puff, the level of carbon monoxide in your bloodstream drops to normal and the oxygen level rises to normal.

Your chances of a heart attack decrease after just 24 hours! The heart attack rate for smokers is 70{918ed39d1b882ebfd9652795bd44509af5d57d60b8f8d28bf944101790d322d3} higher than for non-smokers.

You start to smell and taste things more vividly again after 48 hours without a cigarette.

Two to three weeks after you quit, you’ll be able to exercise without feeling winded.

At the three-month mark, your circulation improves and your lung function increases up to 30{918ed39d1b882ebfd9652795bd44509af5d57d60b8f8d28bf944101790d322d3}.

You have increased energy. Coughing and shortness of breath are greatly reduced. You are less likely to contract lung infections. This happens by the nine-month mark.

A year after you quit smoking, your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.

Five years after you dump this bad habit, your risk of esophageal, lung, mouth and throat cancers drops dramatically. Your risk of having a stroke is the same as your other nonsmoking pals.

Ten years after smoking, your lung cancer death rate is about half that of a smoker’s. This is great news; smoking accounts for 90{918ed39d1b882ebfd9652795bd44509af5d57d60b8f8d28bf944101790d322d3} of lung cancer deaths worldwide.

Fifteen years after you put out the butts, your risk of heart disease is the same as someone who doesn’t smoke.